Hood River (OR) Lobos Poker Run 9-Nov-14

[liv2day]

Now that was a fun day out in the woods, even with the liquid sunshine, crazy winds, and minor snafus along the ride

The plan was to meet my buddy at Binns Hill staging with only a couple of the usual suspects - guess all the rest of 'em were doing their hair or otherwise occupied...lol. Left the house at oh-dark-thirty and drove over to pick up my buddy Dru and we were supposed to meet another buddy at the Troutdale exit and caravan out together. That sort of worked, but at least we heading east shortly after 7:00. There were a bunch of bikes in trailers both going east and stopped at various places along the Troutdale exit - looked like it was going to be lots of peeps out riding.

No issues getting to the staging area and the silly weather made it appear as if we'd get some sun to join us for the ride. Unloaded everything and wandered down to the check-in area...at which time the sprinkles were falling.







Came back to get geared up and the rain decided to fall a little harder and brought the wind with it. Holy carp can the wind blow up there - nothing like getting geared up in my bucket with rain falling and the wind blowing...lol. Should have jumped into someone's enclosed trailer and just might do that next time.

We all found the first check point and started out on the long course, the rain wasn't too bad and it felt great to be back on the bike after a month or so hiatus.



About .4 mile (yes - that's 4-tenths...lol), I wedged myself between a couple of rocks and suddenly lost drive. Hmmm - that's no good. Took a quick look down to see what the heck was going on and wanted to smack myself in the forehead.







Not exactly sure how it popped off, but I am sure that I should have checked my chain before the ride . Fortunately, Dru was right behind me and it was an easy job getting it back on the sprocket. Thought about taking the time to tighten it in the rain, but figured we'd do that if it popped off again.

With that minor setback out of the way, the ride kept going and we hooked back up with trask-rider and Pod. This was only my 2nd ride in Hood River and I had no clue where we were going, so it's a good thing the Lobos folks did a good job marking the trails. The only exception to that was what someone called the cloverleaf...lol. We came out from one trail, crossed the road to hit the joining trail and had a couple bikes coming the other direction. Hmmm - that didn't seem right. So, we back-tracked and ended up doing another 4-5 mile loop that we'd already done...and ended up back in the same spot.

After bombing up and down a logging road, we decided to follow a group of riders heading one way and that was a good decision...lol.

[liv2day]

The rain relented a couple times and I was able to get some decent footage, but it was a slippery, muddy mess. It wasn't too bad when you were under the trees or in the forest, but getting out into the logged areas was more like a slip-n-slide. I don't remember when it happened, but during one of the stops trask-rider realized he didn't have any front brakes. And I don't mean like they were soft or the pads were worn...there was nada. Given the conditions and how dicey the damn slick clay was, he gets the medal for nutting up and toughing it out - I would have tucked tail and gone back to the truck...lol.

Speaking of slick arse clay, I did get to enjoy my own slip-n-slide off the bike. The bike decided to go cross-rutted on a section of 2-track (it wasn't my decision...lol) and then had the audacity to chuck me off. So there I went, shoulder first into the soup with an immediate roll onto the back skittering down the trail. Thankfully, there wasn't anything immovable along the way, so I popped up and noticed that my seat decided to pop up too. Haven't seen that one before - the screw holding the seat was still fully attached, but the rest of the seat had somehow popped out from the restraints. Took some time to clear the clay/mud from the bolt so I could get a Y-wrench on it, but she eventually went back into place. For all the folks that rode by and asked if I was ok, thanks - shows how good of a group we have out there.

I finally made it to the trail juncture and endured the harassment from the yahoos I was riding with, glad the folks that passed me could tell 'em my seat popped off...lol.

Not knowing the area very well, I had no clue where we went next - or really where we had come from, but it went up and down and around. There was one section that sticks out in memory - we came out of a forested area, riding along a hillside when we were hit with the winds left over from that super typhoon :laughing8: :laughing8: That was nuts - the wind was strong enough to push us up against the hillside and off trail, and the rain made it even more fun.

All in all, I logged just under 36 miles for the ride. It was supposed to be slightly longer than that, but some logging had screwed up the original route. We didn't feel cheated though, especially since we'd done one of the legs twice...lol.

Big props to the Lobos peeps for laying out the course and picking fun stuff to ride. It took me an hour to get all the clay and mud off my bike, but well worth it.







As usual, some video footage of the fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B5YtiWNGgY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvs19jm_-Z8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDkcW51JBIo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRMk5Yuer-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMKeMd7M44

[iamovru]

Very Cool! Hoods a blast with the right people